Police investigating blast site in Cairo

Authorities began investigating the site of a blast after two policemen were killed and three wounded when an explosive device carried by a militant they were pursuing detonated in the heart of the Egyptian capital on Monday, February 18, an interior ministry statement said.

Egyptian police block carry equipment to the site where the body of a suicide bomber lay covered in a sheet behind al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo on February 19, 2019. (AFP)

According to the ministry, security forces were pursuing the man in the search for the perpetrator of an attempted attack against a police patrol in western Cairo on Friday.

At least three civilians were also wounded, including a Thai student who suffered light injuries, security sources said. The area around al-Azhar mosque is home to crowded markets and is a popular tourist destination.

Egyptian security forces have been waging a campaign against Islamist militants over the past year focused on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Attacks in the capital are relatively rare, though a roadside bomb in Giza killed three Vietnamese tourists and a Egyptian guide in December.